 Review by quanta 
UPDATED: 58 days ago
member for 7.5 years, 2882 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Toronto,ON
 $45 per month (month by month)
 about 15 days
 Bell Canada
 "Rock-solid reliability, consistent speeds, low waiting time for tech support (5-10min)"
 "Low retention rate for newsgroups"
 "You get what you pay for. I like it."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
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This is the Sympatico HSE Standard, at 1.5Mbps, dynamic IP via PPPoE. For the record, I work for Bell Nexxia, but my job is not related in any way to Sympatico or Bell Canada operations.
First off, my only beef was getting it set up. My new number wasn't in the database, and it took a while to get all their ducks lined up in a row. After that, no problems. I got a Nortel 1MM modem, a free D-Link NIC, and four filters. Activation was free.
When I moved, I just filled out the online form, and everything was up and ready for me when I arrived at my new place. I just had to replug in the modem and my PC, and everything was good.
I plugged it in, and it works. It may have gone down a total of 60 minutes for the past year I've been using it. I am always getting top speeds (~93KB/s).
I can always get a tech support guy within 5-10 minutes of calling.
As for the bandwidth cap, well, I don't go over it, so it isn't relevant to my decision.
UPDATE (Sep '03): A lot of positive changes to Sympatico this year, partly because of Bell's new "Keeping it simple" marketing initiative. First, the bandwidth caps were dropped. Secondly, One Bill was introduced, so you can have your phone and Sympatico charges on a single bill. Thirdly, HSE was upgraded to a full 1.5Mbps down/320K up. I had my Nortel modem was exchanged for an Efficient 5200 with one phone call. The new modem and filters arrived in three days, and the my line was transferred to the Alcatel platform four days later. They included a prepaid envelope to return your Nortel modem and filters in. Now I enjoy ~173KB/s.
My only pet peeve is that the new modem did not come with a wallmount filter for my kitchen phone.
UPDATE 2 (Mar '04): In Bell's drive to their Next Generation Network, HSE subscribers were upgraded from 1.5Mbps to 3Mbps! I received my upgrade sometime in late February. Now I enjoy 280KB/s download, and 80KB/s upload. Jolly good.
UPDATE 3 (Sep '09) After buying a home I switched to CondoTV. Lots of changes to "Bell Internet" in the past 5 years, not all positive. Service remains reliable, but price has gone up. Have decided to cancel my grandfathered no-cap plan and switch to Teksavvy.
Followup comments:  snorlax14
join:2007-11-20
Thornhill, ON | Why the same smooth ride rating? If you have cancelled service for "lots of changes not all positive" you might want to rethink the smooth ride rating. | |
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Snore master
@videotron.ca
| Re: Why the same smooth ride rating? Bell employee, and a recent (apparently) ex-bell employee posting who's ex-bosses frequent this forum. So that says something.
besides the comment where he states, "Low retention rate for newsgroups" is also a give away since bell hasn't has news groups in about 3 years or so.
So no, it isn't reflective. Easy to see. | |
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